LAUSR

BACKGROUND Previous studies have demonstrated that contact positively impacts nursing students' willingness to care for people with mental illness. However, studies that have explored the mechanism of such a relationship between contact and willingness remain few. OBJECTIVES To examine the direct relationship between contact and nursing students' willingness to care for people with mental illness and to explore the potential mediating roles of stigma. DESIGN This was a cross-sectional study design. SETTINGS The study was conducted in a nursing school in Nanjing city, China. PARTICIPANTS A total of 839 nursing students were recruited in the study through convenience sampling. METHODS Nursing students' stigma, contact, and willingness to care for people with mental illness were measured online through the Stigma toward People with Mental Illness Scale (SPMI), the Level of Contact Report, and one item of "which degree indicates your willingness to provide care for people with mental illness," respectively. The structural equation model was applied to explore the potential mediating roles of stigma. RESULTS Contact with people suffering from mental illness directly affected nursing students' willingness to care for them (β = 0.076, p < 0.05). Meanwhile, stigma partly mediated the effect of students' contact on willingness to care for people with mental illness (β = 0.048, p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS High level of contact can improve nursing students' willingness to care and the relationship is partly mediated by stigma. Measures to improve the level of contact and reduce stigmatizing attitudes of nursing students are accordingly essential in influencing them to have more willingness to care for people with mental illness.